A series of attacks between the US and Iran over the past several days led President Donald Trump to declare the end of a ceasefire meant to halt the fighting that the US and Israel began on February 28, though Trump has left the door open to continued negotiations.
The escalation followed several attacks on commercial ships in the area. Iran said it had closed the strait after firing a warning shot that struck a vessel traveling on an unapproved route, and said on Sunday it had disabled a second vessel.
The strait will remain closed until "the end of US interference in this region," Iran's Revolutionary Guards said.
But US Central Command said commercial vessels continue to transit through the waterway that carried one-fifth of the world's oil and LNG shipments before the conflict.
Central Command said US forces hit 140 Iranian military targets on Saturday, out of more than 300 during three nights of strikes "to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait."
Iranian state media reported explosions in a number of port cities.
In response, the Guards said they had destroyed a command and control center and drone hangars at US ally Jordan, targeted a US radar site in Kuwait, attacked US aircraft carrier support and refueling platforms in Oman and destroyed a jet maintenance centre and command facility in Qatar.
